L'Arche Kent from the inside

 I remember going to Church one Sunday morning with some members of our house when I first started as an assistant. I sat next to Annie, one of our core members at church. Annie is a warm, loving lady who enjoys company though she needs quite a bit of support to stay focused on where she is and what shes doing. I was nervous. Sometimes she isn’t aware that people are praying around her or sitting in silence and will ask many many qestions repeatedly. We’ve tried many ways to support her with this – answering her questions very clearly and simply, encouraging her to enjoy the peaceful service, explaining the importance of a prayer and the Mass for other people, but sometimes Annie doesn't understand other peoples needs when she has one. If I’m honest, I didn't want people looking at us or her when she is speaking during prayer and lacked confidence in finding good ways to encourage her to allow others to pray in silence. I thought about different ways to help her be calm an...

My name is Jacqueline, I’m German and I have been a L'Arche assistant since March 2009. I live in Little Ewell , a community house in the countryside. James asked for people who want to write an article about life in L'Arche and since I read some examples he gave me, I can’t stop my mind composing new articles about this community life that I want to share with you. So I made some notes and then decided to write them down immediately before I forgot something. Every day I'm here there are more impressions of life and community that I want you to know about. The fact that I find it so easy to see meaning in my life in community tells me that I have found something in L'Arche life which is valuable and something I hope is a strength for me. Working confidently with people with a learning disability is not a gift that everybody has, perhaps including me. But I've learned that everybody has something he or she can do as well or better than somebody else – it doesn...